What About Watermelon?

The 2nd Largest Produce Food Hoax in the Last 10 Years

Recently there has been talk surrounding if blue and purple watermelons really do exist?

While there is a range of different fleshed watermelons including red, yellow and green, unfortunately blue and purple watermelons are a hoax. Millions of people have been tricked into thinking these perfectly Photo-shopped watermelons really do exist. Furthermore people have purchased ‘Purple Watermelon’ seeds online, tended to them and watched them grow only to learn that they were victims of theft by deception.

How Were People Fooled by Purple Watermelons

In the 21st century someone who knows their way around Photoshop has the scary ability to make anything look real. In terms of purple watermelons, someone has used a simple watermelon and manipulated the colors to make it look like a real edible watermelon, only with purple flesh!

You may be wondering why people were so gullible to believe purple watermelons were real? With advances in science eventually GMO’s were introduced around the world. GMO’s are genetically modified organisms. This means that the changes to these organisms would not have occurred naturally. A prime example of a GMO is a Granny Smith apple that has been modified so that when it is sliced, it takes longer to go brown. Granny Smith apples are not as extreme as a purple watermelon, although due to these new technologies people were easily able to be mislead.

Photoshopped or Real? Images that Fooled the World

A simple collection of photos fooled a large number of people around the world. Multiple images edited by multiple people were released making the hoax so believable. We have gathered a few ‘purple watermelon’ images below.

Sliced Purple Watermelon

Photos of sliced purple watermelon are often used on ads to promote these ‘new’ seeds. Don’t be fooled, your fruit will be red fleshed on the inside. The purple color varies from each photo. Some of these hoax photos are a vibrant purple while others are more blue scaled.

Cubed Purple Watermelon

Cubes of delicious purple watermelon. If only this color variation of watermelon existed.

Whole Purple Watermelon

Not as believable as the photos above, although this whole purple watermelon still looked real to some internet users.

Hoax Purple Watermelon Seeds for Sale Online

The photo evidence is not all that supported this hoax. Worse than the photos were the products being sold online. Multiple companies began selling ‘purple watermelon’ seeds. These seeds had low shipping costs, initial good reviews and multiple images of a fully grown fruit. Thousands of people were sold these seeds believing that they would grow to be a watermelon with purple flesh. Much to their disbelief, all of the fruit bared from these seeds were red-fleshed watermelons. Believe it or not, these purple watermelon seeds are  still available on eBay and Amazon. All of these products now have bad reviews although people are still purchasing them to ‘try their luck’ while others skip over the comments.

Hoax Purple Watermelon Seeds for Sale on Amazon

Currently on Amazon, 10 packs of ‘Purple Watermelon’ seeds are available. Many people have purchased them and left the truth they were faced with in the comments. Where possible, never buy seeds online. Plant and fruit seeds are best purchased from reputable garden retailers.

Google Trends Surrounding Blue and Purple Watermelons

It seems that there are periods of time that people around the world have heard about these ‘famous’ colored watermelons. You yourself, may be reading this article to pin point the truth about purple or blue watermelons. You can rest assured that you are not the only one confused about this colored watermelon talk.

Blue Watermelon Google Trends

During July of 2017 talk surrounding Blue watermelons lead to an increase in  people searching for answers on this topic. Since then, many of the rumours surrounding blue watermelons have died down and the myths surrounding purple watermelons have flared up.

Purple Watermelon Google Trends

In April 2018 the most recent rumours about purple watermelons began. Similar to the search trend one year previously, people began searching the internet again for answers. Lucky due to a few helpful articles (including this one) people are able to learn the truth about these watermelons.

When Did the Purple Watermelon Rumour Begin?

After analysing Google trends charts, the first widespread rumours of these visually appealing purple watermelons can be dated back to 2013. The rumours seemed to then die down until recently when the internet began to go crazy again with pictures of these perfectly edited purple watermelons. Social Media Sites such as Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest led to a wide spread viewing of these ‘purple watermelon’ images.

Japanese Hoax – The Moon Melon

Similar to the ‘purple watermelon’ hoax, in Japan word spread that there was a fruit called the ‘Moon Melon’. The ‘Moon Melon’ was simply just a red watermelon photo-shopped to look blue in color.  The ‘Moon Melon’ was promoted as a fruit that ‘grows in some parts of Japan and is known for its vibrant blue colour. This fruit’s party trick is that it can switch flavours after you eat it.’ The Moon Melon hoax began in 2011 when a number of photos of this photo-shopped fruit were released on a social media platform. Unfortunately to date there is no such melon that has blue flesh. In actual fact, unless there are significant changes to laws surrounding GMO’s, we will not be seeing blue fleshed watermelons anytime soon. For now, we can admire the look of the photo-shopped images that many scammers have uploaded to the internet in attempts to sell their ‘Moon Melon’ or ‘Purple Watermelon’ seeds.